Silva's campaign check bounces

Sunday

Jun 16, 2013 at 12:01 AM

As he campaigned for Stockton mayor, candidate Anthony Silva again and again said he would take no pay, forgoing the mayor's salary until there were more cops on the street and the city's budget balanced.

As he campaigned for Stockton mayor, candidate Anthony Silva again and again said he would take no pay, forgoing the mayor's salary until there were more cops on the street and the city's budget balanced.

What a difference six months makes.

Not only is Silva asking for his salary, he wants it retroactive to January. And, he wants the full $102,000 annual wage and not just the $79,000 his predecessor Ann Johnston took when she refused a raise bumping the salary to six figures.

"People will bag on me for that, too," Silva said of his reversal on the pay issue.

Ya think?

The city has added some police officers, although nothing like the number most people believe are needed. Violent crime is down, although mostly because of a concerted multi-agency crackdown - with which the mayor had nothing to do - on known troublemakers.

And the city budget is balanced, although balanced by withholding $22 million in debt payments under bankruptcy protection (and ignoring for the moment that a balanced budget is legally required).

So Silva, by a certain tortured logic, can argue he's met the obligations of his campaign promise. But that logic is twisted like a pretzel when he simultaneously claims if he doesn't take the pay he'll still have to pay taxes on it (a legal proposition of dubious validity); and, if he doesn't take the pay, that the money will just go into the city general fund under the control of his nemesis City Manager Bob Deis.

Look, he's entitled to the money. He's entitled to change his mind (we can think of a number of issues on which we think he should change his mind). He can, as he says he will, spread some of his back salary around to his favorite charities. He can even forgo his $100,000 a year salary as head of the Boys and Girls Club, something he said he's done so the Club can make budget.

If he does this after his bombastic campaign promises, he has to expect that certain members of the public will look askance on his flip-flop.